Happy Birthday, Frank**
Can't say I would have remembered otherwise*, but Google's made a clever little logo to commemorate the birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright, born June 8, 1867.
*I should remember, because my Mum - who, like Wright, is of Welsh heritage - has her birthday tomorrow.
**And Mum!
*I should remember, because my Mum - who, like Wright, is of Welsh heritage - has her birthday tomorrow.
**And Mum!
Definitely not a stupid question. And definitely too much attention is given to individual architects. But also too much attention is given to other celebrities, be them actors, athletes, etc. I find the obsession with celebrity these days both wasteful and fascinating. Wasteful because so much energy, time, money, etc. is directed towards this infatuation; fascinating because there's something almost innate, undeniable about it, but maybe that can be attributed to how the market deals with celebrities, feeding them to us via TV and magazines. I mean, I really don't care what Brad Pitt does with his life, but him and other people have become like the weather: something to talk about, something we (oddly) have in common.
ReplyDeleteBut I may be straying from your question: what good is a celebrity architect? Funny thing is Frank Lloyd Wright pretty much put the celebrity in architect, what with his ego and tabloidish personal life. The fact Gehry's the first architect since him to have near that much popularity, with a stable personal life and a rather modest demeanor, must mean his buildings are creating the buzz. Which is good, because at least people are associating Gehry's name with buildings, or at least images of buildings.
It seems like an issue with all this is how people view architects, again something that can be partially attributed to Wright. People tend to view architects like artists: lone visionaries with big egos. Much of the WTC debacle has reasserted that point of view. But I like to think of an architect as like a film director. Sure, somebody with vision (and ego to boot, most of the time) but also somebody who works for somebody, works with teams of people to coordinate that vision, and many times makes important decisions based on other peopl's input. So it's not a lone endeavor, but a collaborative act with the architect steering things.
I doubt any of this is news, but given that the Pritzker has only once not been given to an individual (Herzog & De Meuron), and that most news tends to focus on single architects (even in the case of a behemoth like SOM), and so forth; yes, too much attention is given to the individual architect. But I also think people would rather read something about an individual than a group or a company. It's more human.
Well with all that babble above, maybe I should say maybe my answers are stupid, but hey.
;)
nope... you're answer was right on target.
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday to your mom,
Eric M.
eye candy...
Happy Birthday Bruce Goff!!!
ReplyDeletejohnr